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About 25 people gathered in Ottawa on Nov. 20 in support of 14 former cleaning staff in Toronto who are pursuing legal action alleging unfair labour practices by contracting companies hired by Dream Office REIT.

A subsidiary of Dream Unlimited Corp., (in the condo partnership of Dream Windmill), Dream Office REIT is facing allegations from cleaners who claim that companies did not pay them Ontario’s minimum wage or give proper severance pay when they stopped cleaning office towers on Bay Street in the city’s financial core.

The Toronto Star has recently reported on the practice of “contract flipping,” whereby no company seems willing to act in a responsible way to ensure workers are treated well.

Among those who attended the Ottawa event, organized by the Service Employees International Union, were members of our new Student and Labour Action Committeee. They linked the alleged unfair labour practices by Dream REIT to concerns about Dream Windmill’s possible plans to acquire and control hydro generating facilities at the Chaudière Falls. The site, known to Algonquin First Nations as Akikodjiwan, is currently subject to a huge expansion funded by Energy Ottawa, a subsidiary of Hydro Ottawa.